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Commentary

North American Wearables Market Grows 33%

The wearable band market in North America reached $2 billion in the second quarter, according to new data from Canalys.

Thanks to the popularity of
smartwatches, shipments of the wearables increased 38% to 8 million units in the quarter.

The North American market leads. More than 60% of Apple’s 5 million global Watch shipments were
in North America.

Fitbit followed with shipments increasing 18%, primarily by sending more basic bands into the channel, though it failed to ship as many smartwatches as in the same quarter
last year, according to Canalys.

An earlier study by Strategy Analytics also found Apple with a strong leading position in wrist wearables. IDC has projected that overall shipments of
wearables will reach 223 million devices this year.

Chuck Martin is Editor of the AI & IoT Daily at MediaPost and writes the daily Connected Thinking column. He is a NY Times Business bestselling author and his latest book is “Digital Transformation 3.0” (The New Business-to-Consumer Connections of The Internet of Things.) He is CEO of Net Future Institute and a frequent keynote speaker internationally. Follow him on Twitter @chuckmartin and contact him at Chuck@MediaPost.com.